Nintendo's killer console sales leave Sony in the shade

Once upon a time, the only things that mattered in the games console business were the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Game Boy handheld. And it looks as though things are rapidly going the same way with two more Nintendo products, the Wii and the DS handheld.....

Once upon a time, the only things that mattered in the games console business were the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Game Boy handheld. And it looks as though things are rapidly going the same way with two more Nintendo products, the Wii and the DS handheld.

Look, for example, at the NPD Sales Numbers April 07 for the US market on Beyond 3D. The Nintendo Wii (360,000) outsold the Sony PlayStation 3 (82,000) by four to one, while the DS (471,000) outsold the PSP (183,000) by around 2.5:1.

The difference would be even bigger if Nintendo could make enough of the things to supply demand. Sony, by contrast, has piles of PlayStation 3 consoles sitting unsold on shelves.

With PlayStation 3 sales falling by another 37% compared to last month, the Xbox 360 (174,000) also outsold it by two to one. Heck, even the Game Boy Advance (84,000) is doing better than the PS3.

According to Reuters: "In 2006/7, [Sony] shipped 5.5 million PS3s, which fell below the company's initial target, and of those about 3.6 million units were actually sold.

As a result of the huge cost of the PS3, Sony's game division lost 232 billion yen (£971m or $1.9 billion) in 2006-7, in spite of massive profits from the continuing success of the PlayStation 2. According to senior vice president Takao Yuhara, it expects to lose only 50 billion yen ($415 million) in the year to next March.

It's too early to call the result of the latest round in the console wars, but not too soon to recognise that Sony's decade of total dominance is over. At least for now.

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